Arguably
the most realistic and frightening of all the Bond villains, Grant was described
as a 'homicidal paranoiac'. In other words, a perfect candidate for SPECTRE.
Grant has escaped from Dartmoor prison in England at the height of the Cold
War and joined the organisation as a assassin. His total ruthlessness and superior
skills make him both feared and respected by his superiors. Grant is also in
peak physical condition, having completed SPECTRE's training courses with impressive
results. He is chosen by Colonel Klebb to assassinate James Bond and Tatiana.
After killing Bond's contact, Captain Nash, in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, Grant assumes
the man's identity and lures Bond into his confidence aboard the Orient Express.
Here, he disarms 007 and promises him a torturous death. Grant makes a fatal
mistake by opening Bond's attaché case, which results in a tear gas cartridge
exploding in his face. In the brutal hand-to-hand battle which follows, Bond
succeeds in strangling Grant with his own Garotte.

Robert Shaw gives a brilliant performance
as Grant, successfully alternating between a talkative, obnoxiously friendly
type I his guise as Nash and a cunning and ruthless killer. Shaw, an award-winning
playwright, would eventually become a popular leading man in such films as 'Jaws'
and 'The Deep' before his premature death from a heart attack in 1978.